Saturday, October 30, 2010

Playlist additions 30/10/10

Aaron Wright - Takes One To Know One [Myspace] [Soundcloud]Friends in high places for this Edinburgh singer-songwriter, with Tracyanne Campbell on backing vocals and Stevie Jackson, Mick Cooke and Norman Blake guesting on the EP. The PR mentions Harry Nilsson as an influence, and that lushly radio-friendly string sound pervades his Neil Hannon-like writing quality.

Esben & The Witch - Warpath [download via Matador Records]Matador claim that in their honour they're "petitioning retailers to add an “Uneasy Listening” bin card to their sales floor". Actually, that's not mere weasel words hype. Very Siouxsie, very swathed in atmospheric echo, very like the Grimmest of fairytales.

The Good Natured - Be My Animal [Myspace] [YouTube] [Soundcloud]Still only 19, Sarah McIntosh has a more developed musical backstory then her current biography lets on - she played Indietracks in 2008, and now shares producers with Razorlight. None of this explains how she came to sound like a fetishistic Regina Spektor writing for Robyn.

Lykke Li - Get Some [download] [YouTube]"I'm a prostitute, you're gonna get some"? Steady on, girl. The glorious Little Bit aside, we always had the impression that Ms Zachrisson was better as a coyly all-action live presence then on record, but this welding of the I Want Candy beat to reverbed menace works just fine.

Mew - Do You Love It [YouTube] [download/stream via Treeswingers]The Danish gentlemen are leading the witness on, your honour. Sounding like something that got mislaid from And The Glass Handed Kites, it's the new track from a best of collection called, with the typically arcane sense Mew have for titles, Eggs Are Funny, which is out this week in Scandinavia. Dunno about the UK.

Pet Moon - Superposition [Myspace] [Soundcloud]More from what will almost certainly become a wretched reference point in the coming months and years, the Blessing Force collective. This arm is the new solo project of ex-Youthmovies leader Andrew Mears. While as awkwardly changeable as his old format the central peg now seems to be Dirty Projectors-like reappropriation of R&B's forward thinking beatmasters against itself, while simultaneously here taking the very essence of mid-80s chart pop - not the bits that influence bands now, we mean It Bites and King - and turning it inside out until it can't feel its toes

Phil Wilson - I Own It [YouTube] [Soundcloud]Formerly of C86-scene favourites the June Brides, Wilson's waited until now to release a solo album. This single is a much better Belle & Sebastian take then B&S themselves have done recently.

Tapes 'n Tapes - Freak Out [download via GvB]And you thought they were lying alongside Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! as long discarded collateral in the great blog hype wars. Instead they drive themselves to almost jangly distraction.